Free Republic

Sweeping layoffs, funding freezes and executive orders have provoked outcry among federal researchers and their university partners, who fear that science itself is under siege. “This is simply the end.” That was the five-word message that Rick Huganir, a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, received from a colleague just before 6 p.m. two Fridays ago, with news that would send a wave of panic through the scientific community.… The flurry of activity in recent weeks stems from Trump’s executive orders that aim to shrink the federal workforce and target programs related to gender identity, environmental justice or diversity,...

The sudden, percussive crackle came as Barb Berlin was standing in the garage of her farmhouse near Inman, Nebraska. “I thought it was a gun,” she said. Then came a streak of white. She realized the sound wasn’t gunfire but hail. This year, amid a spring and summer of extreme weather, hail — not hurricanes, floods or tornadoes — has caused the highest damage costs in the U.S., according to Gallagher Re, a global reinsurance firm that tracks such data. And research suggests that large hailstones like the ones Berlin saw Monday will become more common as Earth warms. That...

Global warming has slightly slowed the Earth’s rotation — and it could affect how we measure time. A study published Wednesday found that the melting of polar ice — an accelerating trend driven primarily by human-caused climate change — has caused the Earth to spin less quickly than it would otherwise.

Scientists have predicted a climate of extremes in report after report as Earth warms because humans continue to belch fossil fuel pollution into the atmosphere.

The chance to secure a livable future for everyone on Earth is slipping away. That was the dire message from a United Nations report released Monday, the culmination of more than six years of work by thousands of climate scientists contributing to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). “There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all,” the report’s authors wrote. Still, there’s hope. The technology needed to adapt to climate change and keep harmful emissions at bay is available, the report says, arguing that a clear path exists...

For climate experts and policymakers, $1 trillion is just a start. As the U.S. seeks to prove it’s serious about its international climate commitments, the focus now is on whether the Biden administration can pass its $2 trillion spending bill, which includes $555 billion to fight climate change and could be the new cornerstone of federal climate policy. The $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill passed by Congress this month already commits historic levels of funding for climate projects. But experts say the U.S. won’t reach its climate goals or restore its international credibility unless the administration can pass its Build...

If this weekend's heat wave sends temperatures soaring well above 90 degrees in king county as meteorologists expect, some communities are likely to suffer much worse than neighbors mere miles away. That takeaway comes from a new map of temperature data thorough King County collected during a scorching day last July +++++++++ They hid this article online after people called the Bush guy who authored this on his G.W. bs